I think once we leave context behind and stop dealing with the past on its own terms "conservative" become a useless and misleading descriptor. In our scenario, we would have to describe the progressive movement of the early 20th Century as essentially conservative with its emphasis on anti-immigration and anti-prostitution measures, eugenic prescriptions, alcohol prohibition and censorship. It works so far but what about women's suffrage, public education reform and child labor laws among so much else on the labor front that we now tend to associate with the left? It's an ideological mess but only because we're forcing our own conceptions on that past.
Last edited by Mister D; 09-25-2020 at 04:37 PM.
Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.
~Alain de Benoist
Peter1469 (09-26-2020)
Last edited by Mister D; 09-25-2020 at 04:38 PM.
Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.
~Alain de Benoist
I know what you're saying and I believe that at least part of the confusion lies in describing the folks who had an anti-immigration, anti-prostitution, pro-censorship agenda as "progressives". It's true that it's how they described themselves at the time and how historians refer to them today, but in fact - from our perspective - their aims and methods were, as you put it, "an ideological mess" - encompassing some causes and views that we identify with the Left and some that we think of as being favored by the Right.
“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” - Robert E. Howard
"Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas and not eat a chicken fried steak." - Larry McMurtry
What is lost today is the quaint notion that people must take responsibility for their own damn self. Somehow replaced by the notion that if you are a screw up, Gov't (via taxation of those who are not screwups) owes you a living.
I applaud Bill Clinton's welfare reform legislation. Two years to get it together and quit being a screwup because the money faucet is getting turned off on you.
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry
FindersKeepers (09-26-2020)